Emotion Lecturer: Dr Tony Mowbray (tony.mowbray@monash.edu) - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Emotion

Lecturer: Dr Tony Mowbray (tony.mowbray@monash.edu)

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• Define Emotion
• Explain the characteristics of emotion
• Identify the roles of social and cultural influences on

emotion

• Describe the various theories of emotion
• Understand the interaction between emotion and

communication Learning Objectives

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• Organised psychological and physiological reactions

These reactions are:

• Partly inner or subjective, experiences
• Partly measurable patterns of behaviour and

physiological arousal

• Usually temporary
• Could be positive or negative

What are Emotions?

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• Central Nervous System (CNS): several brain areas are

involved in the generation and experience of emotions.

• Autonomic Nervous System (ANS): gives rise to many of

the physiological changes associated with emotional arousal.

• Brain Mechanisms
• Limbic system
• Voluntary facial expressions

Biology of Emotion

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• James’ Peripheral Theory (James-Lange Theory)
• Perception of peripheral responses: brain interprets a

situation and automatically directs a set of peripheral changes

• Facial feedback hypothesis: involuntary facial

movements provide peripheral information for an emotional experience

• Cannon’s Central Theory (Cannon-Bard Theory)
• Emotion occurs entirely within the brain with or without

feedback from peripheral responses Theories of Emotion

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• Schachter–Singer Theory
• Interpretation of events and our peripheral responses
• Arousal depends on attribution – identifying cause of an

event

• Lazarus’ Cognitive Appraisal Theory
• emotion is a result of our evaluation of how an event

affects our wellbeing Theories of Emotion (cont.)

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• Based on James-Lange peripheral theory
• Types of lie detection tests:

Control question test Directed lie test Guilty knowledge test

• Problems

Polygraph results not 100 per cent accurate Guilty person can ‘fool’ the machine Innocent people can be mislabelled as guilty.

• New tests measure

Brain activity Brief facial ‘microexpressions’ Lie Detection: The Polygraph

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• Words
• Nonverbal cues:
• Body movement
• Posture
• Tone of voice
• Facial movements and expressions

Some emotions are learned depending on social situations. Some emotions can be interpreted differently in different cultures. Communicating Emotion

9 Expressing Emotions